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Ghana utility

Upper East Region

Pupils entertain the crowd before a meeting to discuss Disaster Risk Reduction

Photo: ActionAid

ActionAid Ghana’s Upper East Regional Rights Programme was the first programme to be established in 1990. The programme covers four out of the eight districts municipalities in the region. The four districts covered are Bongo, Builsa, Bawku East and Bolga.

Located in northern Ghana, the Upper East has all the charatectriscs of the northern region. Most people live in rural areas and the area is prone to flooding and drought.

The main economic mainstay of the people is small scale farming with many others doing vegetable farming around the dams.

In December 2004, our Bawku West Programme was officially phased-out and all community level development initiatives handed over to one of ActionAid’s partners, the Centre for Community Development Initiative.

Our long term engagement with the poor and vulnerable, and increasing evidence from Ghana Living Standard Surveys and other poverty studies, indicate the root cause of poverty in the Upper East as powerlessness and the lack of voice of the vulnerable in the formulation of public policies and decisions that deeply affect their livelihoods and well-being.

Thematic Areas and Activities

Upper East Regional Rights programme focuses on food rights, right to education and women’s rights.

These are also consistent with ActionAid Ghana’s four strategic objectives under its CSP IV (Rights and responsibilities) as well as ActionAid International’s Rights to end poverty.